What’s Next To Do?06082013If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them —John 13:17Be determined to know more than others. If you yourself do not cut the lines that tie you to the dock, God will have to use a storm to sever them and to send you out to sea. Put everything in your life afloat upon God, going out to sea on the great swelling tide of His purpose, and your eyes will be opened. If you believe in Jesus, you are not to spend all your time in the calm waters just inside the harbor, full of joy, but always tied to the dock. You have to get out past the harbor into the great depths of God, and begin to know things for yourself— begin to have spiritual discernment.When you know that you should do something and you do it, immediately you know more. Examine where you have become sluggish, where you began losing interest spiritually, and you will find that it goes back to a point where you did not do something you knew you should do. You did not do it because there seemed to be no immediate call to do it. But now you have no insight or discernment, and at a time of crisis you are spiritually distracted instead of spiritually self-controlled. It is a dangerous thing to refuse to continue learning and knowing more.The counterfeit of obedience is a state of mind in which you create your own opportunities to sacrifice yourself, and your zeal and enthusiasm are mistaken for discernment. It is easier to sacrifice yourself than to fulfill your spiritual destiny, which is stated in Romans 12:1-2. It is much better to fulfill the purpose of God in your life by discerning His will than it is to perform great acts of self-sacrifice. “Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice . . .” (1 Samuel 15:22). Beware of paying attention or going back to what you once were, when God wants you to be something that you have never been. “If anyone wills to do His will, he shall know . . .” (John 7:17).
It is these words, along with a strong leading from the Holy spirit, that got me to cut my ties from the dock and set sail on the swelling tides of the Adventure God has for my life. It was the evening of June 8th of 2013 that I read what Oswald Chambers had to say. Little did I know in less than 24 hours these words would be apart of radically changing my life. The next morning John Orr began to preach his final sermon as a pastor of crossroads church. I have known John since I was a child. Our friendship grew while I was in high school as he was the high school pastor. When I graduated and went of to college John and I lost touch. In saying this I was very excited to hear him preach. As John begins to preach he starts sharing his story and how God has put a calling on his life to be a part of a church replant in Bartow County. At this point in his message I was very excited for John and was interested in helping out where I could.
These next few minutes radically changed my life and brought me to the trail head of my spiritual destiny. As John continued to speak he transitioned from telling his story to sharing some words of an old dead guy. The words he shared were the exact ones I have shared with you today. It was in those few moments I felt the Holy spirit move inside of me like I never had before. In those few moments I felt the call on my life to move to Bartow County and join him in his adventures at The Stone Church. As much as I felt confirmed about my calling I was nearly speechless. I went to talk to John after the service and told him I was proud and excited for him. He said you need to come up and be apart.I wanted right then and there to share my heart with him but the words were not there.
This all happened at an amazing time in my life. Within the next three or four days I left the country to spend ten days in China. God taught me so much in China. As he taught me, the pull on my heart for Bartow County grew. It was all I prayed and talked about. When we landed at the airport in the middle of the night, after a twenty plus hours plane ride, I knew my next step.
I contacted John and set up a lunch with him. We planned to meet at redneck Gourmet in Senoia. The restaurant is about twenty minutes from my parents home in newnan. The whole ride there I felt my heart beating in my throat and there was a knot in my stomach. Not because I was nervous to meet with John but I knew my adventure with God was about to begin. We sat down together and began the normal conversations old friends have. John asked me about pretty much everything going on in my life, and then came the question. What next? Over the next few minutes I told John, in more detail, exactly what I have shared with you today. His reaction was better than I could have imagined. He told me he'd love to have me.
I began to look for a place to live in Bartow County. At the end of the summer I found a small rental home in an old mill community in Cartersville. I moved in a few weeks before my first semester of my senior year at Georgia State University and here we are today.
I believe God has a wonderful adventure planned for all of us. It will take every ounce of bravery and courage you can muster. However, walking with the Lord on a grand adventure is a life worth living.
